Does the way a classroom is decorated affect the way students learn?

The question has been asked if the way a classroom is decorated affects the way a student learns. I feel that sometimes our classrooms can be over decorated. This over decoration which is fun to look at and brings life and warmth to children’s classrooms can also be the cause of distractions.

Classrooms such as kindergartens, have decorations like colorful borders and alphabet letters and colorful cellophane sheets over the windows and the concern is, do these things help or distract kids from listening and learning. It has been found that highly decorated classrooms are a bigger distraction for students, particularly the elementary years of school. These children have less ability to control their focus to assignments than kids in the higher grades, who have developed more ability to concentrate on what is in front of them and control their priorities. It has been found that children respond more not to the color and themes of a classroom but more to their own work being displayed on the walls of their class. Having their work surround them gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride. This is more likely to encourage work to be done the best they can as an extra incentive to be rewarded.  

The way I feel our elementary school classrooms should be decorated is not to be gray and lifeless, but to have a good mixture of color and some themes, but in the form of the children’s own work.  The classrooms should not be overly decorated by the teachers but since the children can find pride and accomplishment in seeing their own decorative creations along with their own work on the walls.  Children may be better at finding a way to make a classroom feel nice and happy with their own work rather than having too much discraction added for them.

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5 thoughts on “Does the way a classroom is decorated affect the way students learn?

  1. Charlotte,
    I liked reading your piece. It was clear that your opinion is that overly decorated rooms can be distracting and that classrooms decorated with student work may, especially for older students, add motivation; so it is implied that you are calling upon teachers to think more about their classroom decor, in particular to be considering it from a student’s point of view. But you don’t attribute any of your facts to sources, and the only problem with that is that the person reading your editorial may confuse your opinion with your facts. So, if research has found that students are motivated in rooms where they see their own work more than in rooms that don’t display their work, then you really need to say where that research came from, who performed it; otherwise, the reader may think you are just stating your opinion. But it was clearly written. Thank you for posting this.
    Sincerely,
    Mr. Jockers

  2. Loved the intro, short and sweet, classic, iconic, like lemonade. Your opinion that you were displaying was very clear, and wording was very well fitted for the topic. The idea that you had was a good idea, and i honestly agree :))

  3. Your editorial was very nicely worded and I knew exactly what your opinion was straight from the beginning, good job. 🙂

  4. Your editorial is well written. It is clear that you think that very decorated rooms can be too distracting. I think you could make your piece stronger by looking into how different decorations affect the students. For example, maybe you could look into how different colors help people feel calmer. You could add what you found into your writing and then it would be more clear what decorations affect students. I also think you had a very good and clear call to action.

  5. This was nicely worded. This was straight forward and I knew your side from the very beginning. I definitely agree with your side.

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